The Brilliant Street Photography of Vivian Maier

While browsing the web yesterday, I came across this amazing blog dedicated to the photography of Vivian Maier. The story about the discovery of her work is perhaps just as fantastic as the iconic images themselves: Her collection of over 100,000 negatives and prints was purchased at an antiques auction in Chicago by John Maloof. As he began to develop the negatives, he quickly realized that he had come into the possession of an astounding body of work spanning from the 1950s through the 1990s. If this sounds a bit familiar, that’s because it is. You might be recalling the discovery of the work of Henry Darger, a janitor from Chicago who became posthumously famous for his massive body of outsider art, as chronicled in the documentary titled In the Realms of the Unreal.

So it’s no surprise that Maloof and countless fans hope to see Maier’s work similarly recognized with the creation of a documentary and book about this mysterious photographer. If you had even a glimmer of doubt, the support on the Kickstarter Project is a testament to the power and allure of her work. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for the premiere.